1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nail correcting device and a medical set for nail correction for correcting a deformed nail such as an ingrown nail and a pincer nail.
2. Description of Related Art
An ingrown nail causes inflammation because the side edges of the ingrown nail are curved inward to press or dig into a soft tissue (e.g., a toe skin) with pain, which may result in symptoms such as granulation and pyogenesis. It should be noted that the ingrown nails of many patients are also considered as pincer nails, the side edges of which curl inward.
There have been proposed typical correcting devices for correcting deformed nails such as a pincer nail and an ingrown nail.
For instance, there have been proposed correcting devices according to which the shape of a normal nail is beforehand memorized in a plate-like body or a tape-like body formed of a shape-memory alloy or a shape-memory resin at a predetermined temperature, and the plate-like body or the tape-like body is attached to a deformed nail with an adhesive (see Patent Literature 1: JP-A-8-215227, Patent Literature 2: JP-A-9-253110 and Patent Literature 3: JP-A-9-253111).
However, since the above typical correcting devices require a strong adhesive for attaching the plate-like body or the like to a nail, it takes a long time before the adhesive dries up, and, further, the plate-like body or the like has to be pressed down with tweezers or the like until the adhesive dries up. Thus, the typical correcting devices are quite tricky to use.
Further, when the adhesive adheres not to a nail but to a skin or the like, the skin is irritated and suffers from an injury such as abrasion.
In view of the above, the inventor has proposed an ingrown nail correcting device capable of solving the above problems (see Patent Literature 4: JP-A-2007-185203). This ingrown nail correcting device includes a plate-like body formed of an elastic material and a plurality of holding units provided to the plate-like body at intervals to hold the distal end of a nail. Each of the holding units includes an upper holder and a lower holder.
When the ingrown nail correcting device is in use, the distal end of a nail is inserted in the holding units of the correcting device so that the distal end of the nail is held between the upper holders and the lower holders of the holding units.
In this manner, a lifting force constantly acts on both side edges of the nail in an upward direction, so that a correcting effect on the deformed nail can be provided.
However, the ingrown nail correcting device previously proposed by the inventor has the following problems (i) to (iii).
(i) Since the correcting device employs the plate-like body and thus the distal end of a nail is merely held by the holding units, an accidental detachment of the correcting device from the nail may easily happen because of a weak nail-holding force thereof.(ii) Since an accidental detachment of the correcting device may easily happen, the correcting device needs to be held with a tape or fixed with an adhesive, which may require a tricky operation. In particular, the use of such a correcting device may be dangerous for a patient with inflammation.(iii) The correcting device may be inserted between a nail and the finger when the nail is not sufficiently grown. In this case, when the correcting device contacts with an object, the lower holders of the holding units are further inserted between the nail and the finger, so that the patient may feel a strong pain.